‘The Three’ by Kelsey O'Brien

Published by Hera,
29 January 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598235-8 (HB)

Georgian England was a positive hotbed of all the things school history lessons leave out, and it turns out they're a lot more interesting than dates of battles and monarchical family trees. For instance, there was a flourishing gay community in London. And the designers and makers of corsets – stays for the initiated – were mainly men.  

In The Three, these lesser-known details combine with man's inhumanity to woman and the perils of revolutionary politics to form a tale of secrecy and danger. A man who was found 'guilty' of fancying his own sex was condemned not only to the gallows but also to the contempt and derision of the rotten-fruit-throwing public. A woman who facilitated such 'reprehensible' behaviour was sentenced to the pillory, which could easily mean death if a hurled half-brick met its mark.   

Matthew, a charming, talented and successful corset-maker, falls in love with Henry from the landed gentry, and becomes Henry's wife's live-in dressmaker in order to pursue their affair. Elina, the wife, refuses to be content with the tedious existence of lady of the manor, and educates herself not only by reading radical tracts and forming subversive opinions, but also by turning her views into a book and trying to get it published. For this she seeks Matthew's help, and they become friends – but he is now in danger on two fronts.   

These three characters form an intriguing and constantly shifting pattern. Elina has no interest in ladylike pursuits like clothes and parties, and is quite unaware of her dressmaker and friend's relationship with her husband. Henry, as befits a man of his station, sees only what he arrogantly believes to be the case, and has no idea that his wife has a brain which far outstrips his own, or that she uses it for purposes he would find quite unacceptable. 

The balloon, as it were, inevitably goes up, and Matthew is stuck in the middle, unable to escape judgement whichever of them he supports. Which will he choose? 

This isn't an ordinary thriller; if you discount people who meet their end as a result of laws which are deplorable by 21^st century standards, there are no murders. Rather, it's a story which illustrates what counted as criminal behaviour during a certain period of history. In the late 18^th century, loving the wrong person and contravening the rules and conventions of society forced people to live under the radar; they were punishable by death or imprisonment if you were caught.

This isn't an ordinary thriller; if you discount people who meet their end as a result of laws which are deplorable by 21^st century standards, there are no murders. Rather, it's a story which illustrates what counted as criminal behaviour during a certain period of history. In the late 18^th century, loving the wrong person and contravening the rules and conventions of society forced people to live under the radar; they were punishable by death or imprisonment if you were caught.

Kelsey O'Brien doesn't preach. Instead, she creates engaging characters and a credible, and very well portrayed, world for them to live in, and turns their fate into a rattling good story. But the message it carries isn't buried very deep, and it serves as a warning to certain aspects of our own world
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick 

Kelsey O'Brien is a Paris-based writer who tells stories about intriguing figures and hidden moments from the past. Her fiction, reviews, and travel pieces have appeared in print and online.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.